The Return of the Buddha

The Return of the Buddha
Author: Himanshu Prabha Ray
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2014-08-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317560051

The Return of the Buddha traces the development of Buddhist archaeology in colonial India, examines its impact on the reconstruction of India’s Buddhist past, and the making of a public and academic discourse around these archaeological discoveries. The book discusses the role of the state and modern Buddhist institutions in the reconstitution of national heritage through promulgation of laws for the protection of Buddhist monuments, acquiring of land around the sites, restoration of edifices, and organization of the display and dissemination of relics. It also highlights the engagement of prominent Indian figures, such as Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Tagore, with Buddhist themes in their writings. Stressing upon the lasting legacy of Buddhism in independent India, the author explores the use of Buddhist symbols and imagery in nation-building and the making of the constitution, as also the recent efforts to resurrect Buddhist centers of learning such as Nalanda. With rich archival sources, the book will immensely interest scholars, researchers and students of modern Indian history, culture, archaeology, Buddhist studies, and heritage management.

Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India

Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India
Author: Daniel Michon
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2015-08-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317324579

This book explores the ways in which past cultures have been used to shape colonial and postcolonial cultural identities. It provides a theoretical framework to understand these processes, and offers illustrative case studies in which the agency of ancient peoples, rather than the desires of antiquarians and archaeologists, is brought to the fore.

Buddhism and Gandhara

Buddhism and Gandhara
Author: Himanshu Prabha Ray
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2017-12-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351252747

Gandhara is a name central to Buddhist heritage and iconography. It is the ancient name of a region in present-day Pakistan, bounded on the west by the Hindu Kush mountain range and to the north by the foothills of the Himalayas. ‘Gandhara’ is also the term given to this region’s sculptural and architectural features between the first and sixth centuries CE. This book re-examines the archaeological material excavated in the region in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and traces the link between archaeological work, histories of museum collections and related interpretations by art historians. The essays in the volume underscore the diverse cultural traditions of Gandhara – from a variety of sources and perspectives on language, ethnicity and material culture (including classical accounts, Chinese writings, coins and Sanskrit epics) – as well as interrogate the grand narrative of Hellenism of which Gandhara has been a part. The book explores the making of collections of what came to be described as Gandhara art and reviews the Buddhist artistic tradition through notions of mobility and dynamic networks of transmission. Wide ranging and rigorous, this volume will appeal to scholars and researchers of early South Asian history, archaeology, religion (especially Buddhist studies), art history and museums.

Buddhist Goddesses of India

Buddhist Goddesses of India
Author: Miranda Eberle Shaw
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 612
Release: 2006
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780691127583

Publisher description

Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks

Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks
Author: Jason Neelis
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2010-11-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004181598

This book examines catalysts for Buddhist formation in ancient South Asia and expansion throughout and beyond the northwestern Indian subcontinent to Central Asia by investigating symbiotic relationships between networks of religious mobility and trade.

The Lotus Transcendent

The Lotus Transcendent
Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Total Pages: 247
Release: 1991
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0870996134

Authoritative commentaries on 187 Indonesian bronzes, ranging from devotional icons, to jewelry, to items created for domestic use. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.